


Alpha

by FictionBlade



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, M/M, alphacentric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-10
Updated: 2017-04-10
Packaged: 2018-10-17 03:04:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10585107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FictionBlade/pseuds/FictionBlade
Summary: “The device is disabled. Time to go back in your collar, Stark. Rogers, will have to wait until we can get a replacement. But at least you two won't be snarling at each other.”“No!” Tony shouts, surprising even himself.“Stark.”“I couldn't breath!” He backs away.“The device is disabled.” Fury tries to be reassuring, it's not working.“You don’t understand, I can't ever breath! It muffles everything, I can't hear! I can't see! I feel like I'm underwater! I'm not going back to that!”----Just another A/B/O fic.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This has been sitting on my drive for a while. Figured I may as well post it.
> 
> Not beta read and I suck at tags.
> 
> Additional warnings:  
> Bad words, sarcasm and non-sciencey hormonal influencing.

“You're going to regret bringing me here!” A round man in a god awful yellow jumpsuit bellows as he, quite literally, falls from the sky and lands face first on the helipad of the Triskelion’s northern tower. 

A moment later Iron Man touches down next to him. His faceplate snaps back and he sighs. “I already do.” Tony replies almost bored. He continues his tone becoming condescending, “your voice is... really irritating.” He grabs the man’s arm, hauling him to his feet and frog walking him forward towards the guards who have appeared in response to the commotion. “Hey boys and girls, present for you from Coulson. You won't believe what we caught him trying to do.” They quickly cuffed the man. “No really, you won't believe it, it was pretty idiotic.”

“Stark!” Fury joins the party, eyebrow twitching. Rather in amusement, or annoyance is anyone’s guess.

“Laugh now, but soon you will all pay!” The man cries as he's dragged away. He continues to rant and threaten until he’s out of earshot. 

“Love you too, precious.” Tony turns to Nick Fury. “Fury I swear, is it just me, or are they getting...”

“Crazier? Dumber? More special? They’ve always been nuts, Stark. You've just been lucky so far and haven't gotten too many of that special brand that manages to combine all those qualities into one headache inducing, life ruining, asshole. But give it time, I'm sure a few more will turn up just to wreck your day..”

“Pass.” They head inside. “Everyone else here?”

“Of course. The other Avengers don't have a problem with being chronically late. Unlike some stubborn assholes, they know how to actually show up for briefings on time.”

“Nicky, how long have you known me? I'm never late.” Tony insists as he exits his suit and puts it in sentinel mode.

“Uh-huh.”

“And if I am, I bring presents.” Bright yellow ones screaming about pain and suffering and promising retribution. Fun.

“That guy? Maybe you should stick to letting Ms. Potts handle gifts.” Valid point.

“What. He might... Know things...” Tony really, really tries to make it come out as a smooth complete sentence.

“You can't even say it with a straight face, Stark.”

Distraction time. “Oh look, it's the team! Hi team!” The Avengers are oh so conveniently there and around a conference table. How nice.

“What'd you do?” Clint asks with a raised eyebrow.

Tony chooses to ignore him and takes the seat next to Steve.

“Feet off the table, Barton.” Fury orders as he enters the room. “Now let's talk about our latest intel on A.I.M. As far as we know MODOK...”

Agent Hill pops her head into the room. “Sorry to interrupt, sir.”

Fury sighs. “What now?”

“We have a situation.”

 *** 

Ten minutes later and the Avengers, Nick Fury, Maria Hill and a dozen shield Agents are surrounding the lone round man in the bight yellow jumpsuit from earlier. He is calmly sitting in a chair in the holding area. Nothing much has changed, except now the yellow jumpsuit is open to the waist showing a metal device surgically grafted across his crest. The man claims it's a weapon, but won't tell them what it does.

Fury is, well, furious. “You didn't think to search him for weapons before bringing him to my base.”

“Oh my god, for the tenth time, it's not a bomb. I would have known if he had a bomb. I have 87 different subroutines programmed into my HUD just for detecting explosive devices.”

“Doesn't have to be an explosive to be a weapon.” Natasha points out.

“Thank you, peanut gallery.” Tony snarks. “He's bluffing.”

“And if he's not?” Steve asks.

“Then we'll deal with it.” Tony replies.

“How? Got a grand plan?” Steve asks, eyebrow firmly raised.

“All else fails we could always feed him to the hulk.”

Bruce gags. “Ok first off, ew. Second off, pretty sure that man would give me indigestion.”

“So... don't feed you villains?”

Bruce just glares.

A beat. “What about super villains?”

“No!”

“Spoilsport.” Tony grumbles.

“You're not taking me seriously!” The man in yellow shouts.

Clint groans annoyed. “Dude, you won't even tell us what this supposed weapon of yours does. You're stupid. This is stupid. Thor, throw your hammer at him.”

“Hmmm. He seems almost too pathetic for the effort.” Thor replies scratching his chin.

The round man in the yellow jumpsuit has had enough. “That's it!” An ominous click is heard, and then the device starts to glow, heat radiates outward with a quiet hum through the room.

And then....

Nothing...

“So it just glows in the dark?” Clint asks. “Man, Tony was right. You are an idiot. Hey Tony...” Clint turns to Tony to find him desperately clawing at his throat. “What the hell?” It takes him a moment to realize he can't breath. Fury is beside him trying to pull something off his throat. “Holy shit, is that a suppression collar!?”

“Yes and it's killing him.” Natasha practically leaps to his side and pulls out a set of lock picks.

Clint turns to Steve. “Cap, what the hell, we need your help...” And stops dead. Steve is crouched and panting surrounded by jagged torn pieces of metal. Apparently he couldn't breath either but unlike Tony, Steve was strong enough to simply rip his collar clean off.

This isn't good.

A loud gasp draws his attention back to Tony. Natasha has worked her magic and the collar is unlocked and off, allowing Tony to take in deep breaths of air.

This is really bad.

“Thor! We've got to separate them!” Clint says.

“I don't understand.”

“Alphas can't be in the same room.” Hell they can't be in the same building, possibly area code, but one problem at a time. “Oh shit.” Too late. Steve is on his feet and aware of Tony, another alpha is his proximity. An event that traditionally ends in blood.

In the background Fury shouts. “Someone disable that damn device!” The SHIELD agents rush to handle it but it's mostly ignored by the Avengers who are standing tense and ready to bodily stop their friends from ripping each other apart.

“Oh you've got to be kidding me! At least now I know why you're such a pain in my ass!” Tony hisses his head snapping up. He has his breath back and is staring at Steve like he expects him to lash out, a very real possibility.

“Shut up, Tony.” Steve snaps.

“This is... good. We're talking. Talking is good. Know what's not good? Attacking each other. So let's all stay calm and use our words...”

“We're not animals, Barton!” It would probably be a bit more believable if Tony hadn't snarled it at Clint.

“Tony's right.” Steve says almost as if the sentence was painful. “Things are tense, but we're in control.”

“Are you?” Natasha asks with a raised eyebrow. Steve is wound pretty tight, like he might snap any moment. “Come on. Let's go get some fresh air.”

Steve looks very hesitant but he glances around before sighing and agreeing. “Alright.”

Tony follows them out with his eyes until they're gone, not trusting, well anything really. As a distraction he focuses on his surroundings. For the first time in years he can really hear the world. Can really see it. Can really smell it. Everything is so intense and right. He's aware of people, really aware of them, from their moods, to their health. He's even more aware of himself, he'd spent most of his life being numb and didn't even know it.

Fury and Hill walk over a few minutes later. “The device is disabled. Time to go back in your collar, Stark. Rogers, will have to wait until we can get a replacement. But at least you two won't be snarling at each other.”

“No!” Tony shouts, surprising even himself.

“Stark.”

“I couldn't breath!” He backs away.

“The device is disabled.” Fury tries to be reassuring, it's not working.

“You don’t understand, I can't ever breath! It muffles everything, I can't hear! I can't see! I feel like I'm underwater! I'm not going back to that!” He can't go back to not feeling the world. He'd never chosen to live like that, his father had snapped that collar around his neck the moment he presented. He never got to be himself.

“Tony, you don't have a choice.” Bruce tried to be reasonable as he reached for him, Tony responded by lashing out and knocking him away before making a break for it. He never even noticed that without the restrictions of the collar his adrenaline aided strength sent Bruce clear across the room.

Panic pushed Tony outside, if an angry roar followed him out he ignored it.. The air is amazing, he could smell distant cities, trees, animals, even the sunshine. He wanders the catwalk of an upper level until he's calm again, finally stopping to watch the sunset, hands loosely grasping the railing. 

He’s not sure how long he stands there before he’s disturbed. He inhales sharply when Steve appears boxing him in against the rail, hands on either side of his, teeth pressed to his shoulder. “Wha...”

“The collar never worked on me.” Steve confesses. “And I knew what you were.”

Two alphas in close proximity, everything he’s ever been told said it shouldn’t have worked. They should have killed each other. “It didn't bother you?”

“Why would it? We didn't have suppression collars back before I was frozen and we got along just fine. Alphas weren't tearing each other apart in the streets or destroying society.” Steve grins, “although I will admit, I've always been fond of brawling.”

“Heard that about you.” Steve's teeth drag along his shoulder causing Tony to shutter. “What are you doing?”

“I have a confession. I've been doing something kinda rude and terrible. Should've asked, should've talked to you, but I just wanted...” Tony turned as much as he was able, and what he could see of Steve looked pretty guilty.

“What?”

Steve exhales and drops his forehead to Tony's shoulder. “I've been trying to initiate the a pre-bond with you.”

“Like in those horrible young adult novels, with the biting and the sex and the angst?”

Steve rolls his eyes. “No. it's all pheromones, hormones, scent.”

“You can't expect me to believe you can just will a bond into existence via smell. Especially not with another alpha.” Alphas don't bond with other alphas. 

Right?

“Really?” Steve leans in close, concentrates on what he wants. The frustration, the need, it burns through him speeding up his heart rate, twisting a familiar tang through the air. 

Tony inhales sharply torn between pushing back and collapsing forward. “Of course this isn't a bond yet, or even a pre-bond, just me letting you know I'm interested.” Steve tells him.

“It... I....” Tony is actually speechless.

“I know it's... I've been doing this for months but you haven’t notice because of the collar. I may have been over doing it to compensate," Tony is still gasping, "a bit.”

“No wonder I'm always agitated around you.” Tony swallows.

“Sorry.” 

“You don't sound sorry.” Tony points out. 

“Heh.” He smirks against Tony's throat. “I guess I'm really not. I want you.”

Tony is all kinds of confused. “What about earlier?” 

“Earlier?” Steve asks.

“When Tasha pulled my collar off you looked like you wanted to kill me.” 

Steve thinks back to the moment when their eyes locked and for the first time with no walls between them. “That was the face of an alpha responding to their distressed pack-mate.” 

“I never agreed to this any of this business.” Tony grumbles.

Steve freezes. “You asking me to stop?” 

Maybe? Mostly, Tony just wants time to think. His entire world has changed. He needs to re-orientate himself before dealing with how he feels about Steve. "Never been interested in bonding.." He confesses.

Steve seems surprised, his hands tightening. "Please don’t push me away, Tony. I don’t know if I can just..." He trails off with a huff.

Tony narrows his eyes. "Well then this is happening." It's the only warning he gives before the Iron Man suit slams into Steve carrying him sideways along the catwalk. Tony smirks and waves as Steve sails past. With a shrug Tony turns, whistling merrily as he walks away.

Tony had never been interested in this whole bonding business. It always seemed archaic, nevermind scarily permanent and static. And Tony is very much a dynamic individual. Granted, it’s Steve Rogers, he could definitely get on that train. 

He’ll think on it. In the mean time the Ironman suit can keep him busy.

He re-enters the building and immediately runs into Thor’s serious face. "Look Thunder Cub, even if you wrestle that collar on me I'm just going to remove it again. So really why bother?" 

"I'm far more concerned about the battle our Captain and your Armor wage in… I believe they are now in the cafeteria."

"Steve likes to brawl. I'm helping."

The building shakes with an impact and a roar is heard. “Oh hey, Brucie Bear joined the fun.”

"Anthony, wearing this collar will aid in calming our Captain down." 

"Doubt it. Steve's in a mood. Now if you'll excuse me I have a finite, ‘get the fuck out of dodge,’ window." 

Close by a crash and breaking glass is heard. Thor sighs, "sorry, Anthony." Clint appears behind him clicking the collar around his throat. 

Tony snarls, "you sons of bitches!" Uselessly he pulls at the metal. 

"One down." Clint tells Thor. They pay Tony no further mind. They have a Hulk, an enraged Captain America, and a wayward suit of armor to deal with.

Tony storms off fully intending to go home and cut the offending thing off his throat. He already has another suit inbound and heads out to the parking lot to meet it.

Meanwhile Clint, Thor and Natasha watch in fascinated horror as Steve, the Iron Man suit and the Hulk tear an unending path of destruction across the building. And really that is not something they want to get in the middle of so they wait for it to wind down. Mostly working to keep it contained to one floor. Finally Steve manages to get the upper hand beating the suit into the floor with a look of pure irritation. Hulk seeing his moment smacks Steve into a pillar a few times before shouting in triumph and wandering over to the snack bar. 

Steve climbs to his feet, shaky but no worse for wear, and covered in concrete dust.

"Cap?"

"Shut up, Barton." Steve's glares at the suit. They all jump when it flares to life and blasts out of the window. Tony's recall protocol to keep his suit out of SHIELD's hands at work. Steve can only watch it fly away with a groan.

***

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Damn it!" Tony throws his tools down in disgust. Getting the collar off is proving more difficult than he thought it would. The damn thing is too tough to just cut off, and heats up pretty fast if he uses any friction like a saw. It being on his neck makes that a problem. Apparently it was designed to be difficult to remove. "Thanks a lot, Howard." He grumbles. His father had invented the suppression collar, supposedly to allow alphas a better place in modern society. Although Tony always believed it was to put Howard's headstrong son in his place. Now thanks to Howard all Alphas are collared the moment they present "for the good of society." 

Being Alpha born is seen almost as a mental illness. And god help you if you get in trouble as an Alpha without a collar. You're pretty much automatically guilty because the Alpha hormones must have made you do it. Not everyone agrees with how Alphas are restricted, but honestly most don't care. Truth be told the Betas and Omegas of the world are over being bossed around by a biological imperative that they feel no longer makes sense. And until today, Tony was on the does not care list. But he's tasted freedom he can't live the rest of his life like this. At least he's a genius. This collar is coming off!

"Problems?"

"Ow! Damn it!" Tony turns to find Steve casually leaning against a work bench. "How the hell did you get in here!?"

"The front door."

Tony just stares at him. "The front door?" He asks.

"Uh huh. Like a normal person." 

"You are not a normal person." Tony would very much like to point out. Not one Avenger could be considered a normal person by any definition. But he’s more annoyed that Steve has showed up so quickly. He thought he’d have more time. "I haven't changed my mind." 

"Okay."

That actually causes Tony to pause. "Really?" 

Steve sighs. "Not going to force you, Tony."

That’s good to hear, but… "No, instead you’ll just keep using that Alpha hormone manipulation trick of yours."

Steve shrugs. "Don't take it personal, I use that trick on everyone. To intimidate my enemies, to improve pack dynamics among the team, to influence decisions. I can't help it. Alphas do it by instinct. You do it too, but the collar suppresses some of the effect."

“You saying the famous Stark charm is just a bunch of Alpha hormones?”

“Well, not all of it.” Steve smirks. “Come here. I’ll get that off you.” He points to the collar.

“Then what?”

Steve meets his eyes, unflinching. “That’s up to you.”

Tony narrows his eyes in response, but walks over regardless. “I’m only letting you help me because it convenient.”

“Un-huh.” Steve easily snaps the collar setting Tony free. 

Tony spins away and breathes deep. “I can’t believe I lived my whole life so, so… locked in.” He turns to look at Steve with weary eyes. “They’re gonna make me put it back on, aren’t they?” 

“Only if they know.” Steve picks up a bit of scrap metal. “Who says anyone has to know?” And Tony realizes manufacturing a fake is the simplest thing in the world for someone like him. He could be free, and no one would challenge it. Simple. As simple as letting himself enjoy this thing he wants. A thing he’s been pushing away because he's been letting fears of the past ruin it. Maybe he could let himself have this too. 

Tony walks over and takes the jagged piece of steel from Steve’s hands. “Who knew you were such a rebel.” He smirks dropping the metal and leaning close to Steve. “Do you think… Do you think you could do it again, that thing you did earlier.” The thing with the hormones and the pre-bonding.

“Better be careful, Stark. I keep doing that without the collar and we could actually start a bond.” Steve warns him with a smile. 

Tony smirks. “Suddenly I’m not so worried about that.”


End file.
